Junkie is righ.
From an interview back in the early 90's:
"I wrote it about a friend of mine named Eric, this peace punk guy who lives on welfare lines and government checks. He doesn’t do shit and he’s always complaining about how the world owes him a living. He just drinks. He’s always going to demonstrations and complaining. The guy’s a bum. He’s living off the system, but he doesn’t do anything. The song is about him. You can also insert different groups of people into the lyrics and it fits in a general way. I suppose you could put women in it, poor people, some minorities, basically anybody that hasn’t gotten a fair shake. A whole bunch of different groups will fit. But I wrote it about a guy named Eric."
Junkie is righ. From an interview back in the early 90's:
"I wrote it about a friend of mine named Eric, this peace punk guy who lives on welfare lines and government checks. He doesn’t do shit and he’s always complaining about how the world owes him a living. He just drinks. He’s always going to demonstrations and complaining. The guy’s a bum. He’s living off the system, but he doesn’t do anything. The song is about him. You can also insert different groups of people into the lyrics and it fits in a general way. I suppose you could put women in it, poor people, some minorities, basically anybody that hasn’t gotten a fair shake. A whole bunch of different groups will fit. But I wrote it about a guy named Eric."